


the forest of lilacs

by alileely



Series: a little wonder's 23 days of wonder entries [3]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternative Universe - Kingdom, Fairy Tale Retellings, Gen, Magic, Magical Forest, jisung is a prince, sungchan is a prince too, they meet in a forest, this is not sleeping beauty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:07:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28047423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alileely/pseuds/alileely
Summary: "No one lives in the forest. That's not possible. No one even goes inside the forest.""And yet here you are."Jisung had always been warned not to stray too close to the forest. People get lost there and never come back. But then again, he was always told not to do a lot of things. It was simply the price that a crown prince had to pay.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: a little wonder's 23 days of wonder entries [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048756
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	the forest of lilacs

The forest had always had this sort of magnetic pull to it, as though it had its own gravity. People were always drawn to it, especially children. The soft purples looked magical in the sunlight and the entire forest seemed to glow in the moonlight, making it seem almost otherworldly — an intoxicating lavender haze that enamored any and every soul that set their eyes on it.

Jisung had always been warned not to stray too close to the forest. People get lost there and never come back. But then again, he was always told not to do a lot of things. It was simply the price that a crown prince had to pay.

And maybe he should have just paid it.

The young prince wondered if the forest was a dimension of its own. He had promised himself he would take one step into the forest. Just one. But then, it was as though something lured him deeper inside. It felt like the forest was tugging at him, at every fiber of his being. He just _had_ to take another step in. Then another. And another. And before he knew it, Jisung was lost inside the forest of lilacs, where he was told never to wander close.

He was sure he had been walking in a straight line. But no matter how long he walked, he could not seem to find his way back. The forest was leading him around in circles, he just knew it. And its warmth, its beauty, was all a trap to lure unassuming strangers and innocent princes to claim them as its own.

There was a rustling behind him. Jisung whirled around, his heart thundering a mile a minute. His voice was shaking as he pretended to act brave. "Who's there?"

"That's strange," a small voice replied.

Jisung stared in both surprise and confusion as a boy stepped out from behind a tree. He had innocent eyes that stared silently at him, meeting his wide-eyed gaze. The boy wasn't smiling, but Jisung thought he could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke in a soft voice, " _You're_ the one who wandered into _my_ home."

"Your home?" Jisung asked, head tilting in curiosity. "You live in the forest?"

The boy nodded exactly three times.

"But..." Jisung thought over his next words carefully. "No one lives in the forest. That's not possible. No one even goes inside the forest."

The boy chuckled. "And yet here you are."

"Well, I..."

Jisung faltered. The stranger did have a point. He wasn't even meant to be here. But he was coming of age in a few days and he figured that it wouldn't hurt to explore the forest he had always stared at longingly from his castle window.

"Would you like to see my castle?"

Jisung's eyes glittered with childlike wonder. "You have a castle? Here, in the forest? I have one, too, but it's outside... Perhaps you've heard of my father, King Gentle?"

"No, but I _have_ seen your castle," the strange boy said. He turned around and began to walk further, and Jisung took that as a sign to follow him. He didn't really see any other choice. The sun was already setting and if he wasn't going to make it back to the castle, he might as well spend the night at this boy's castle.

Still, he found it odd that there would be a castle in this forest. Jisung had always stared at the forest of lilacs, perched on the windowsill on the tallest tower in the kingdom. It stretched on for miles and miles, but he never saw a castle. Perhaps a cottage could be hidden beneath the thick trees and amongst the lavender flowers, but a castle?

He was just about to take this boy's words with a grain of salt. Perhaps he was just a whimsical young boy with a wild imagination. But his breath hitched when they walked into a clearing, and a magnificent white castle stood right in the middle of it. It was so white that Jisung mistook it to be covered in snow. As he stood in silent awe, the boy stopped and smiled at him as he said, "It almost seems like you'll fit right in."

Jisung glanced down at his clothes. A snow white suit to represent purity, adorned with only a silver eagle brooch with a chain stretching from it to symbolize bravery. It is what his kingdom stood for and these were the values that he had always been expected to uphold: _a pure heart and a brave soul._

"I've never seen a castle in the forest before," he said, his voice soft.

"Of course you haven't," the boy said. "Looking is not the same as seeing, after all."

The boy led him towards the castle. It stood tall and proud, grander than any other kingdom Jisung had ever seen. Most castles tend to look both luxurious and imposing. A kingdom, his father had told him, needs to inspire awe from its people and strike fear into its enemies. But this castle, it was not imposing at all. In fact, Jisung found it enchanting.

There were no guards that stood at its gates, no uniformed men equipped with spears to intimidate both guests and, well, _non-guests._ Jisung wondered how the doors could open and he was just about to ask his strange companion when the doors slowly started to open as if by itself. The boy, undeterred, kept on walking straight in.

"How does it do that?" Jisung asked, his voice rising in excitement. He smiled brightly as he bounced a little, keeping up with the boy. "Is there a secret contraption that makes it open? Is there a hidden gear? Is it connected to a lever in a secret room?"

The boy chuckled. "You've never seen magic before?"

"Magic?" Jisung asked, not incredulously as most people would. "There's no such thing as magic," he said, but only repeating it emotionlessly like words he parroted from someone else's mouth. Deep down, Jisung had always believed in magic, in things that the universe kept secret from them. But his parents' fond smiles had turned into exasperated sighs as he grew up, so he stopped talking about magic as if it were something real.

The interior looked even more magical than the outside. Everything looked crystalline as if he were inside a castle made out of ice. Jisung slowly took in his surroundings, turning around in a slow, small circle. He was so engrossed that he jumped a little when he heard the boy call out to him, "Look, we're just in time for supper."

Jisung tore his gaze off the crystal chandelier just in time to see the boy slip into a room farther down the hall. He had a habit of getting lost in his own kingdom, so he immediately rushed off to keep up. But he stopped short in his tracks at the entryway of the dining hall. It was not so much the enormity that stunned him, but the feast that was laid out on the long table.

There was a banquet at his kingdom just a few months ago. They were celebrating a successful peace treaty with the neighboring kingdom and there was a royal fuss about everything. But as grand as everything had been, and Jisung thought he would never see anything grander, what was laid out in front of him put that banquet to shame. Just looking at it made him feel stuffed.

"Sungchan, you didn't tell me you were having a friend join us."

Jisung had been so distracted by all the delicious-looking food that he failed to notice a woman, garbed in the most elegant lavender silk, sitting at the head of the table. She smiled kindly at his gobsmacked expression, and Jisung felt more than a little ridiculous as his mouth flapped open and close like a fish.

"Oh, I—I'm sorry, my lady, I didn't—"

"Oh, it's quite fine, young man," she smiled and a bubbly laughter, one that would make anyone feel warm, erupted from her lips. "Please, have a seat. My son doesn't have many friends."

Jisung took a seat and jumped when a butler appeared beside him almost out of thin air (and the young prince wasn't even sure if it was truly _almost_ because he could swear there had been absolutely no one else in the dining hall). The boy — Sungchan, he remembered — laughed in a soft manner. If the woman's laughter made him feel warm, Sungchan's laughter was enough to make anyone melt.

"Would you like wine to go with your dinner, Your Highness?" the monocled gentleman asked. He looked old yet youthful at the same time, his hair graying and face slightly wrinkled but still carrying himself with the strength of a youth. "We serve only the finest here."

"Oh, that would be..." — _he faltered; had there been food on his plate when he sat down only a few seconds ago? He could've sworn there wasn't_ — "... wonderful, thank you."

The woman — Queen Dear, as he had learned from the butlers and maidservants that appeared out of thin air (and this time he was certain for he had seen one of the maidservants materialize by Queen Dear's side, the air beside her shimmering like a mirage as the maid seemed to spring into existence) — and Sungchan asked Jisung a lot of questions. Mostly about his kingdom and his family, but others that made Jisung not uncomfortable but _curious_.

"How do people on the outside live?" Sungchan had asked, his doe eyes getting rounder with curiosity as he leaned eagerly over the table, hanging onto his every word. Jisung had took it to mean, _How do people live outside the forest?_

But that would soon appear to be untrue because, though he was sure he was being careful about it, Sungchan had slipped and in his excitement had referred to them as "humans". And it crossed Jisung's mind that no human would call another human, "human". Not unless they were, in fact, not human and would have to refer to them specifically in such a way.

By the time supper had ended, there were two things that were clear to Jisung. One, these people were _not_ human. And two, they did not mean any harm.

"Sungchan, would you be so kind as to escort our lovely visitor out of the forest?" Queen Dear asked graciously, smiling kindly at Jisung. "The forest has a mind of its own, and it likes to play tricks on unwary guests. But my son can guide you home."

And so, he did.

Sungchan spoke to him in an excited voice, telling him all kinds of magical tales about talking trees and flying horses. As they reached the edge of the forest, Jisung noted that Sungchan had led him on a straight path — the same path that had not worked for him earlier.

"So, I guess this is goodbye?"

There was a sadness in Sungchan's voice, causing Jisung to frown. "What's wrong?"

"Nobody ever visits us a second time," Sungchan explained. "Most people don't really stay too long, either. People get lost in the forest and we guide them out. That's about it. Humans... I mean, other people can't usually see us."

"Is that why Queen Dear said you don't have many friends?"

Sungchan nodded sadly. Jisung knew exactly how that felt. Since he was a little child, he was forbidden to make friends. He once played with the son of one of the castle servants. They were caught and he never saw him again. Last he heard, they had left the kingdom and were living in a small village to the west.

It was simply the price that crown princes had to pay. But perhaps he didn't have to pay it alone.

"I'll be your friend."

Sungchan's expression lightened up and he broke out into a smile, the happiest smile that Jisung had ever seen on anyone. "Really? You mean that?"

"Yeah, I'll come visit from time to time!"

"Oh, but I don't want you to get lost in the forest," Sungchan mused. "How do I know when you're going to visit so that I can guide you?"

"Let's meet here every seventh day of the week."

And so, they did.

No one could figure out where the young prince wandered off to every seventh day of the week. Most people, including his parents, simply assumed he was exploring, getting lost inside his own kingdom as he usually did. His parents and tutors alike would often try and search for him to get him to attend his boring lessons or sit through the local subjects' pleas in the king's court.

But even though they turned the entire kingdom upside down searching for the young prince, they could never find him.

After all, how could they?

No one would stray too close to the forest of lilacs. People get lost there and never come back, they said.

But Jisung knew better.

**Author's Note:**

> [cc](https://curiouscat.me/alileely) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/alileely)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!!! This fic was loosely inspired by a little fairy tale that I read as a child. [Blondine](https://fairytalez.com/blondine-part-i/) by Comtesse de Ségur, but I know it by _Bright, Deardeer, and Kit_. I truly hope you enjoyed reading, and kudos and comments would be greatly appreciated!!!
> 
> Sending u hugs ♡


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